16:38 Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour)

I have said before that we want to see a plastic packaging tax that is ambitious and makes a real impact in reducing plastic pollution. Just last week, the Environmental Investigation Agency released a report saying that plastic pollution is now a global emergency nearly equivalent to that of climate change itself. It has shown that the toxic pollution resulting from over-production of virgin plastics and their lifecycles is irreversible, and that it directly undermines our health, drives biodiversity loss, exacerbates climate change and risks generating large-scale harmful environmental changes. For those reasons, we cannot afford to slow down the fight against plastic pollution. We hope that the plastic packaging tax can be part of that fight, but we need reassurances from the Minister that these changes will not undermine its impact.

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16:46 Ms Anum Qaisar (Airdrie and Shotts) (SNP)

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sharma. The amount of waste going to landfill in Scotland is at its lowest level since records began, but of course more needs to be done in order to maintain progress. Scotland has met and exceeded the EU target to reduce the quantity of biodegradable waste disposed of to landfill, with that waste continuing to fall to its lowest level on record. The Scottish Government are committed to matching or exceeding the standards set out by the EU single-use plastics directive, and are determined to accelerate progress to meet our ambitious waste reduction, recycling and climate change targets.

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